Coalition supports amendment to defund illegal surveillance

We write to urge you to vote yes on the bipartisan Amash-Conyers amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2014 (H.R. 2397). Rep. Amash’s proposed amendment would defund mass, blanket surveillance of the phone or Internet records of Americans who are not subjects of authorized terrorism or espionage investigations.

This would preserve the NSA’s ability to obtain specific records of specific persons, as Congress originally intended, while effectively ending blanket surveillance of millions of Americans who are not involved in a threat to national security.

The Amash amendment will give Congress the time to consider revisions to FISA in a careful, considered manner, while protecting Americans’ constitutional rights and defusing a crisis that has undermined Americans’ trust in those charged with protecting us all against genuine threats.